


Tide Pools and Sunburn

by alessandralee



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Beaches, Day Off, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-23
Updated: 2014-12-23
Packaged: 2018-03-03 02:51:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,233
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2835347
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alessandralee/pseuds/alessandralee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>With a little time off, Fitz, Skye, and Jemma spend a day at the beach.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tide Pools and Sunburn

**Author's Note:**

> Written for aosexchange.

“I think I’ll stay here,” Fitz tries to excuse himself, “where it’s nice and cool.”

“Nope,” Skye insists, “you’re coming with us. You need some fresh air.”

“It’ll be fun,” Jemma singsongs. “The seaside is home to a variety of fascinating ecosystems and—“

“And we never get time off to relax,” Skye cuts in, “so that’s what we’re going. Either you can go and get changed or I’m dragging you into the water fully clothes.”

“I’ll need sunblock,” is all Fitz says.

He had an unfortunate incident at a desert testing sight during his Academy days, and now he’s a bit paranoid about avoiding sunburn.

“Ta da!” Jemma fishes a large bottle of sunblock out of her beach bag. “UVA and UVB protection.”

She remembers that incident well.

Fitz grumbles under his breath as he returns to his room to change.

It’s a short walk to the beach from their house. All they have to do is take a path over a large sand dune and they’re there.

“You know, I’ve always wanted to learn to surf,” Skye comments as she takes in the waves crashing against the sand.

“Good luck finding someone here to teach you,” Fitz scoffs.

The beach is completely empty, save for a small flock of seagulls ambling along the dune. They’d arrived late last night, so they’d just assumed that their neighbors had already gone to bed. But it’s nearly eleven now, and prime time to be on the beach, yet it’s completely deserted. Maybe there isn’t anyone staying nearby.

Skye shrugs, “Say what you want about SHIELD and secrecy, but I’m not going to complain about having an entire beach to ourselves. I almost wish Coulson and May would have secret meetings more often.”

“It’s a shame everyone else is missing out on this,” Jemma says.

Mack is back at the Playground, and Bobbi and Hunter were sent off on some mission none of them know much about, aside from it taking place somewhere in South America.

“It’s almost low tide,” Jemma pulls a tide chart out of the pocket of her shorts. Skye and Fitz have no idea where it came from. “If we leave our stuff much further out than this, it’ll get swept away from the tide comes in.” She drops her bag and towel in the sand.

Unceremoniously, Fitz and Skye drop their stuff next to Jemma’s.

“First thing’s first,” Jemma searches through her bag again, “sunscreen.”

She pulls the bottle out and strips down to her bathing suit, making short work of covering herself in the stuff. She only pauses to ask Skye to take care of her back.

Fitz is slower and more careful in his application, not wanting to leave an inch of skin bare.

“Don’t forget the tops of your feet or the back of your ears,” Jemma advises him and he obliges.

“I think you missed a spot on my right shoulder,” he points out as Jemma takes care of his back. She shakes her head at him, but squirts out more of the lotion and goes over that spot again.

“No, thanks,” Skye says when Jemma offers her the bottle, “I don’t burn that easily.”

That comment earns her a ten-minute lecture on the dangers of skin cancer from Fitz and Jemma. She spaces out when they start using big science words, but tunes back in just in time to catch the bit about how she wouldn’t go into the field without proper defenses, so why would she go into the sun without them.

Eventually she slathers herself in sunscreen just to shut them up.

They grin like they knew that would happen. Clearly they’ve all been spending way too much time together.

“Let’s find a tide pool,” Jemma suggests, once they’ve all put some of their clothes back on.

She and Skye opt to leave their shirts by their towels, feeling cooler in their bathing suit tops, while Fitz not only puts his shirt back on, but also pulls out a baseball cap. It won’t cover the back of his neck, but he wasn’t really prepared for this trip. It was the best he could find on such short notice.

Fitz and Skye fall into step behind Jemma as she leads them along the shoreline. Their feet dip into the cool water as the waves wash in and out. No one says anything; Jemma’s preoccupied with looking ahead for any rocks that might hide a tide pool, while Skye and Fitz are just enjoying the calm atmosphere.

Really, there’s nothing like having an entire beach to themselves. No little kids running and screaming. No portable stereos blasting awful music.

Soon enough, Jemma spots something and picks up the pace. When Skye and Fitz catch up with her, she’s crouched next a rocky pool of water.

“Silvetia compressa,” she points to a large clump of seaweed. Neither Fitz nor Skye is particularly impressed, but they’re not surprised either. Taking Jemma out into nature usually involves at ten minutes of her telling them the scientific names for every plant and animals she can recognize. They’ve learned that it’s easier and quicker to just let her do it.

“You know, the first time I went to the sea shore, I was six,” she changes subjects. “And there was a tide pool, not quite like this on, of course, the native specials vary across the world. But regardless, I was fascinated. So many different species in such a contained area. I watched until the tide came in and when we got home, I read every book on tide pools that I could get my hands on.”

It’s not hard for them to picture a little child version of Jemma just as excited about tide pools as she now is about alien viruses and other deadly substances.

“I mean, my parents had expected me to spend the day building sandcastles with the other children, so they were probably a bit disappointed to that end. Still, they didn’t discourage me,” Jemma continues.

She points out all the different tiny crabs nearby (some of which look completely identical to Skye, but Jemma insists they’re not), but eventually everyone’s legs cramp up from the crouching, so they head back to where they left their stuff.

It doesn’t take long for them to roll out their towels and secure them with bags and shoes. Fitz insists on erecting the large beach umbrella he found in the house, which he situated directly above his own towel. Jemma pours them all cold fruit punch from a thermos and they lay out to relax.

After a while, they each doze off, only to be awoken by some sort of loud seagull brawl down the beach a bit.

“Shit,” Skye curses when she sees the pink splotches of sunburn forming on her shoulders and chest.

Jemma, naturally more pale than Skye and therefore more susceptive to sunburn, is pink pretty much everywhere but on her face. Fitz’s umbrella managed to protect here there.

Fitz is fine, and takes the opportunity to gloat a bit over how much pain they’ll be in tomorrow. 

They quickly pack up and walk back to the house they’re staying in. Jemma and Skye volunteer Fitz to make an early dinner while they slather themselves with aloe vera lotion and try to find resting positions that don’t aggravate their sunburn.

They don’t have much success.


End file.
